Employees are crying at work. Here’s what HR can do.

Everyone cries sometimes, and your employees are no exception.

Nearly half (49%) of US workers have cried or almost cried at work in the past six months, and most (87%) have hid their tears from colleagues, according to a recent report from career and résumé platform Resume.io, seen by HR Brew.

“I don’t think it’s surprising to see the data, given how much is going on right now,” Amanda Augustine, a career expert at Resume.io, told HR Brew. “As we’re seeing many people return to work after having those lines blurred for so many years working from home, we are seeing more people show that emotion.”

What can HR do? HR pros can help by normalizing conversations about emotional distress and acknowledging that crying is a symptom of other issues in employees’ work and personal lives, Augustine said.

“While openly crying in the office isn’t fantastic, it’s not necessarily the problem, it’s the effect,” she said. “This emotional distress is a signal. We really got to focus on what is the root cause behind this.”

HR pros can ask themselves these questions, she said: Are workloads manageable? Are mental health resources being utilized and regularly communicated? Are employees burned out? Do they feel safe sharing their emotions with their managers?

“While yes, we care about performance, and yes, we care about professionalism…The reality is, if you’re not addressing what’s causing this person to break down, then nothing is going to be solved, and your productivity is going to be ruined anyway,” she said.

Focus on safe spaces. Employees need to have safe spaces in the workplace, Augustine said, like managers to talk with about their emotions and a private space to which they can retreat.

“Carve out spaces where it’s not necessarily, ‘Hey, we want you to go in there and cry,’ but maybe it’s, ‘Hey, this is the distress room,’” she said. “It’s the place where, if you don’t have a spot already…this is where you can go, and having some of those nooks within your office space is a great idea.”

It’s up to managers to model healthy behaviors too, Augustine said, by sharing their own struggles and how they’re utilizing mental health resources.

“Having those conversations, and not just pretending that, ‘Oh, it’s a challenge, and let’s just all get through it,’” she said. “Actually accepting and acknowledging that there are real struggles and pressures in and outside of work that are going to impact how you show up at work.”